Conference Day Two
Tuesday 16 July
08:30 Registration and welcome coffee
08:50 Opening remarks and welcome address from the Chair
Keith Orchison, Director, Coolibah Pty Ltd
Optimising Australia’s gas development and environmental regulatory environments
09:00 Ensuring equitable outcomes for NSW landholders
- How the Land and Water Commission will protect the interests of NSW’ land holders
- The role of Regional Community Funds in developing better relationships between communities, industry and government
- How the gas industry can foster better relationships with rural communities
- Balancing the interests of industry and landholders – where can both parties compromise?
Jock Laurie, NSW Land and Water Commissioner
09:30 Moving forward with gas in South Australia
- Prospects of shale gas in South Australia
- How the government is addressing environmental issues
- How the approvals process for resource development in South Australia differs from others states
Barry Goldstein, Executive Director Energy Resources, South Australian Department of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy
10:00 Improving the major project development assessment process
- Why we need to improve the way we manage environmental assessments
- Outlining a vision for a more effective process
- The benefits of a staged approval process – broad project approval preceding permit conditions
- Incorporating more informal round table discussions
- Social contract – not social license; ongoing engagement between local communities and industry
Ian Woodward, Principal Environmental Scientist, pitt&sherry
10:30 Morning tea
11:00 Balancing the growth of the NSW CSG industry and protecting our environment
- How the EPA is regulating both the environmental and health impacts of CSG in NSW
- The experiences of the EPA in dealing with gas development in NSW in the last decade
- Can we adequately manage a gas industry in NSW?
Mark Gifford, Chief Environmental Regulator, NSW Environment Protection Authority
11:30 Monitoring and valuing the space between the sand
- Whole of crust monitoring’ – the challenge and necessity of monitoring all resources in our crust in a coordinated manner
- Multiple uses within a basin - what sort of data sets do we need to build in order to understand system connectivity?
- What sort of impacts have we seen on fugitive emissions from gas development?
- How can we tie in both economic and geoscience data to value different parts of the crust if their use could be mutually exclusive?
Tim Rawling, Principal Research Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne
12:00 Who owns the minerals?
- How does resource ownership work across Australia’s states?
- What happens today when landholders resist explorers?
- What are the implications for unconventional gas development of current ownership laws?
Samantha Hepburn, Associate Professor – School of Law, Deakin University
12:30 Lunch
The concerns, experiences and recommendations of the agricultural sector
13:30 Learning from the experiences of Queensland’s farmers
- What have been the impacts on farmers – both positive and negative – of the development of CSG in Queensland?
- What have been the key initiatives that have helped Queensland’s rural community achieve more desirable outcomes?
- What can other states learn from the experiences in Queensland?
Sue Dillon, Projects Manager, AgForce
14:00 How can the concerns of farmers be alleviated?
- What are the apprehensions of farmers in further developing unconventional gas resources?
- What management practices and policies need to be put in place to remedy the concerns of framers?
- How can we improve communication between farmers and industry?
- What broad solutions does the farming community suggest?
- Moving forward – the importance of transparent regulation
Deb Kerr, Manager – Natural Resource Management, National Farmers Federation
The critical question of how best to manage Australia’s water resources
14:30 What is the current regulatory and policy regime for CSG projects in NSW?
- Understanding the complicated regulatory framework in which the CSG industry operates
- What impact have we seen from existing gas operations in NSW on groundwater and how is this impacting policy development?
- How will the NSW Aquifer Interference Policy ensure gas projects do not have unwanted impacts on NSW groundwater?
Jan Gill, Team Leader Groundwater Policy, NSW Office of Water
15:00 Afternoon tea
15:30 The measures we need to avoid any negative impacts on irrigators
- Why we need a ‘no negative impacts to third parties’ approach
- Should industry be held liable for any damages to our water resources?
- What risk assessments need to be done prior to exploration and production?
- Can reused water be part of the future for irrigators?
Andrew Gregson, Chief Executive Officer, New South Wales Irrigators Council
16:00 What sort of data do we need to build to develop useful conceptual groundwater models relevant to CSG impacts?
- What do we still need to understand about groundwater flow systems with respect to CSG - such as recharge and discharge rates and groundwater-surface water interactions?
- Where is the CSG industry falling short in environmental monitoring, such as measuring dissolved gases and flux rates, organics, salts, metals and groundwater levels?
- Why a sound baseline study and transparency in environmental monitoring will help all interested stakeholders - community, researchers, government and industry alike
- Given the perceived and actual risks, is there a place for CSG as a transition fuel to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions with respect to climate change and the inevitable rise of renewable energy?
Gavin Mudd, Senior Lecturer – Environmental Engineering, Monash University
PANEL DISCUSSION
16:30 Current industry practises & ensuring adequate water management
- Co-existence between large water users on the arid content
- Managing CSG water – treatment, transportation and secondary uses
- What management policies need to be in place to ensure appropriate aquifer management
Moderator:
Keith Orchison, Director, Coolibah Pty Ltd
Panellists:
Deb Kerr, Manager – Natural Resource Management, National Farmers Federation
Andrew Gregson, Chief Executive Officer, New South Wales Irrigators Council
Jan Gill, Team Leader Groundwater Policy, NSW Office of Water
Gavin Mudd, Senior Lecturer – Environmental Engineering, Monash University
17:10 Closing remarks from the chair
17:20 Lucky draw and close of conference